Night. The Hyuga Clan's training hall.
After dinner, Hyuga Satoru could hardly wait—he rushed straight to the dojo, eager to test out the forbidden technique he had learned that very day.
Hyuga Hiashi, afraid his son might do something reckless, had followed along after the meal. Now, father and son stood face to face in the center of the dojo. Under Hiashi's watchful gaze, Satoru crossed his hands into a strange "cross" seal—one that didn't belong to any of the basic twelve hand signs.
In the next instant, thick white smoke billowed around him.
"Multi Shadow Clone Technique!"
When the smoke cleared, over a hundred Hyuga Shinichis filled the dojo. The spacious hall suddenly felt crowded.
"Hmm… so it's the Multi Shadow Clone Technique, huh?"
"This is the jutsu you were so eager to try out?"
"This technique… doesn't really suit you, Satoru."
Hiashi didn't look the least bit surprised that his son could use such a difficult technique so easily—creating over a hundred clones on his very first attempt. Stroking his chin, he simply offered a calm, critical comment.
He had long since grown used to his son's monstrous talent. Everything Satoru did could be summed up with a single phrase: "As expected of my son."
Compared to the other strange and dangerous forbidden jutsu recorded in the Scroll of Seals, the Multi Shadow Clone felt almost ordinary.
It was, after all, merely an advanced form of the Shadow Clone Technique. In Konoha, there were quite a few who had mastered it. Yet for most shinobi, this technique was almost useless—it divided the user's chakra evenly among each clone.
That meant every additional clone made each individual's chakra weaker. Most ordinary shinobi, even if they could perform the technique, wouldn't gain any advantage in battle. Splitting limited chakra among many clones would leave each one too feeble to even perform a single full jutsu.
For a clan like the Hyuga—whose power came from taijutsu—this jutsu held almost no value at all.
Hiashi demonstrated with a casual hand strike. Smack! The nearest clone puffed away in a burst of white smoke.
At the same time, Satoru felt the clone's memories—and pain—flash through his mind. His brows furrowed.
Hiashi's strike hadn't been strong, yet the pain he felt through the clone was startlingly real.
"The pain the clones feel gets sent back to the user when they disappear," Hiashi noted. "It doesn't cause injury, but it's real—and the more clones you have, the greater the mental strain. Too much, and even a strong mind might collapse."
Satoru nodded. He knew that already—but feeling it firsthand made it clearer.
To use this technique properly, one needed not only an enormous chakra reserve, but also a high tolerance for pain. Naruto could use it like a natural-born protagonist because he simply didn't care about pain.
Besides, shinobi in this world were far tougher than normal people. Even someone like Kakashi could endure three days and nights of torture in Itachi's Tsukuyomi without breaking. If that kind of tolerance were applied to using shadow clones, even tens of thousands wouldn't be a problem.
Still, Satoru decided against using it in combat.
Better to treat it as a training booster.
As for the fatigue feedback that came when the clones dispelled? That was simple to solve—he'd just keep the clones' training intensity low. If they didn't feel tired, the feedback would be minimal. Control the duration, and there'd be no side effects.
Satoru wasn't Naruto—he had no plans to treat his clones like overworked beasts of burden.
"Father," he said thoughtfully, "when the clones vanish, their memories and experiences return to me. Doesn't that mean I can train several times faster than normal?"
"For chakra nature transformation and shape manipulation, it's all about feeling that precise moment of change. This technique can help me immensely."
Hiashi paused, surprised—then stroked his chin again and laughed.
"Indeed, for training purposes, it's quite remarkable!"
"To think you'd see that aspect of it… truly, you are my son!"
Whether the idea was his or not didn't matter. It came from his son's mouth, and that was reason enough for praise.
After experimenting a few more times with the Shadow Clone Technique, Satoru engraved its feel into his memory. Then, he entered the next stage.
He asked his father to bring piles of blank scrolls. While his memory of the Scroll of Seals was still fresh, he used shadow clones to record the forbidden techniques one by one.
He held no intention of keeping them secret. His chance to view the Scroll of Seals was earned through both his own merit and his clan's support. So he intended to copy what he remembered and preserve it for the Hyuga Clan—treasures to be sealed away until a worthy heir could unlock them in the future.
Such practices weren't unusual among the great clans.
Take the Sarutobi family, for instance—after the Fourth Hokage and Kushina died, where did their belongings go? In Naruto's youth, he found Kushina's handmade scarf in the Sarutobi household's storehouse—that alone made it obvious.
If Kushina's personal mementos ended up in Hiruzen's possession, then surely the Uzumaki clan's sealing arts and Minato's research scrolls had been stored there as well.
So why should Satoru feel guilty for doing the same? The jutsu were all in his head—why shouldn't he write them down for his clan's benefit?
The Hyuga had protected him; now, he would repay that protection.
When the transcriptions were done, Satoru requested that Hiashi bring out all of the clan's sealing scrolls for him to study.
After all, the Hyuga Clan had stood in the ninja world for generations. Through battle spoils and exchanges, they had gathered many sealing arts over the years. As the wielders of the Caged Bird Cursed Seal, they were no strangers to fuinjutsu.
With Minato's hints in mind, Satoru knew he couldn't approach the Flying Thunder God Technique unprepared. Since that jutsu was deeply connected to sealing formulas, he needed to study sealing comprehensively.
And while he was at it, he wanted to understand the Caged Bird Cursed Seal itself.
He truly wished for the Hyuga Clan to grow stronger—strong enough to protect every one of its members, himself included. To achieve that, the Caged Bird Cursed Seal would need reform.
Abolishing it completely was impossible—it did serve as protection for the Branch Family—but perhaps, it could be changed.
"Tomorrow," Satoru murmured to himself, "I'll start with the Flying Thunder God."
"I just hope my talent is enough to master it."
"Even if my use of it never reaches the speed of the standard Body Flicker Technique… it'll still be worth it."
—
Under the pale moonlight, silence blanketed the village cemetery.
A cloaked figure stood among the gravestones, his presence blending into the shadows.
He knelt slowly before one particular stone—its surface engraved with the name 'Nohara Rin.'
Beneath the tiger-striped mask, a single scarlet eye gleamed with grief and longing.
"Rin…" he whispered.
Each time he saw her name, his longing deepened—and so too did his hatred for this world. That hatred fanned the flames within his Sharingan, making its power grow ever more intense.
…
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